A High Efficiency 28 GHz Three Way Doherty Power Amplifier in 180nm CMOS Technology for Industrial Internet of Things Applications

The exponential growth of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications demands power-efficient millimeter-wave transmitters capable of sustaining high efficiency across wide power-backoff ranges. This paper presents a novel three-way Doherty power amplifier (DPA) operating at 28 GHz and implemented in cost-effective 180 nm CMOS technology. The suggested hybrid architecture connects a two-stage Class-AB carrier amplifier with two Class-E peaking amplifiers using a load-modulation network that has been optimized. Advanced simulations show that the highest output power is 18.36 dBm and the highest power-added efficiency (PAE) is 30.85%. The amplifier is important because it maintains backoff efficiencies of 23.198% and 16.19% at 3 dB and 6 dB power backoff, respectively. This meets the strict standards for signals with a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). Also, the design is very linear, with an error vector magnitude (EVM) of 2.9% and a third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) of −28 dBc at a 6 dB backoff. This allows for the use of complex modulation schemes. This work is a big step forward in the design of cost-effective millimeter-wave power amplifiers. It works well with older CMOS technology and improves battery life and power use for next-generation IIoT deployments.